Existing research on student acceptance of the flipped classroom in higher education is somewhat equivocal: some students appreciate the opportunities for active learning that a flipped classroom affords, whereas others expect their learning to occur via in-class lectures. The current study sought to disentangle some of these mixed results by manipulating aspects of hypothetical flipped and traditional classroom environments through a vignette comparison approach. In the first study, a third of the participants reported a preference for a flipped classroom that utilized video lectures as the primary pre-class preparation activity, in comparison to a traditional classroom characterized by at-home reading and in-class lecture. In contrast, the second study demonstrated that half of the sample preferred the flipped approach when the pre-class participation activity was presented as a menu of choices including, but not limited to, video lectures. Across both studies and class preferences, quantitative and qualitative analyses indicated that participants believed they would learn more in their chosen class environment, and they attributed more positive personal characteristics to their preferred instructor. Implications for instructors contemplating a switch to the flipped classroom from a more traditional approach are discussed.